In recent years, in order to achieve high breakdown voltage, low loss, and the like in a semiconductor device, silicon carbide has begun to be adopted as a material for the semiconductor device. Silicon carbide is a wide band gap semiconductor having a band gap larger than that of silicon, which has been conventionally widely used as a material for semiconductor devices. Hence, by adopting silicon carbide as a material for a semiconductor device, the semiconductor device can have a high breakdown voltage, reduced on resistance, and the like. Further, the semiconductor device thus adopting silicon carbide as its material has characteristics less deteriorated even under a high temperature environment than those of a semiconductor device adopting silicon as its material, advantageously.
Examples of such a semiconductor device employing silicon carbide as its material includes a semiconductor device that conducts and interrupts current by controlling whether to form an inversion layer in a channel region based on a predetermined threshold voltage, such as a MOSFET (Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor).
For example, WO 2012/035880 (Patent Document 1) describes a method for manufacturing a semiconductor device using a silicon carbide substrate. According to the method for manufacturing the semiconductor device, a combined wafer is prepared in which a plurality of silicon carbide substrates are connected to each other by a supporting layer, then a surface electrode is formed on one surface of the combined wafer, and an adhesive tape is adhered in contact with the surface electrode. The supporting layer is ground while supporting the plurality of silicon carbide substrates by the adhesive tape, thereby removing the supporting layer. Next, a backside electrode is formed on the silicon carbide substrate with the silicon carbide substrate being fixed by the adhesive tape.